The Alcoholic Inability to Control Drinking

“Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count. How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will. The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive. He has lost control.” – Pg.23 -24 There Is A Solution, the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

The fact is that we as alcoholics do not know why we take that first drink, can’t stop, and need alcohol addiction help in order to get sober any more than the next person does. It feels at times like we are beating our heads against a brick wall by doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We see the wreckage that is a direct result of our drinking yet we cannot seem to put the bottle down. Perhaps it’s the obsession that we can eventually drink normally combined with the phenomenon of craving that keeps us going. Our thoughts more than anything are a lethal combination that keeps us entangled in this disease and we have no hope of recovering until we go to a drug addiction detox, AA, or an affordable rehab. As it states in this excerpt from there is a solution “the happy day may not arrive”. Many of us do not make it but if you recognize that you might have a problem, and are willing to get help then you have a fighting chance at beating this disease and living happy, joyous, and free.